Disc players are already known in which a disc on a tray is transported horizontally to a position above a turntable, which is then raised to lift the disc off the tray and eventually press the disc against a clamp positioned above the turntable (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication SHO 61-145758).
The disc player described comprises a main chassis fixedly provided inside a cabinet, and a sub-chassis supported on the main chassis upwardly and downwardly movably and having mounted thereon a turntable assembly, pickup assembly, etc. When the sub-chassis is driven upward by the power of a motor mounted on the main chassis, the turntable rises therewith to lift the disc off the tray.
With the above disc player, however, the sub-chassis carries thereon not only the turntable assembly but also the pickup assembly including a feed motor specific thereto, etc., so that the liftable arrangement including the subchassis is large-sized and heavy. Consequently, the upward and downward movement of the subchassis requires a motor specific thereto and having a great capacity and a large mechanism, and further necessitates a large space since the subchassis is large. This entails the problem of increasing the weight and size of the entire player.
To overcome this problem, it appears useful to mount the pickup assembly on the fixed chassis and to make the turntable assembly only liftable so as to reduce the size and weight of the liftable arrangement.
Nevertheless, another problem is encountered in the case where the pickup assembly is mounted on the fixed chassis. The pickup must be disposed at a level a small distance from the disc on the turntable as raised to its upper limit position, so that if the distance, which is determined by the optical system, is small, the pickup must inevitably be positioned at a higher level than the path of horizontal travel of the tray. The tray or the disc thereon will then collide with the pickup.
Furthermore, the conventional disc player described requires, in addition to a spindle motor for driving the turntable, at least a number of motors, i.e., a motor mounted on the main chassis for driving the subchassis upward and downward, and a pickup transport motor and tray drive motor which are mounted on the subchassis. The many motors required entail the problem of not only making the disc player larger and heavier but also necessitating circuits for driving the respective motors to render the electric circuit of the player complex in construction.